Site Mobile Navigation

Yanks’ Pettitte, 39, Signs On for Comeback

TAMPA, Fla. — Saying he was “ready to go back to work,” Andy Pettitte announced Friday that he was returning to the Yankees.

If only it were that simple.

If Pettitte is the Pettitte of old, instead of just an old Pettitte, his stunning announcement means the Yankees must somehow shoehorn seven starting pitchers into five spots. That probably means an arm or two (or three) could be traded or sent to the minor leagues.

“We have a lot of good pitchers here,” General Manager Brian Cashman said. “You can never have enough pitching. It’s a good problem to have.”

Pettitte, who signed a one-year, nonguaranteed minor league contract for $2.5 million without incentives, last pitched for the Yankees in the 2010 postseason. His combination of age — he turns 40 on June 15 — and inactivity does not usually equal excitement. But then again, this is Andy Pettitte, a borderline Hall of Fame left-hander with a 19-10 career postseason record and the most postseason victories in major league history.

“He knows how to pitch, and he knows how to pitch in New York,” Cashman said. “I know what a healthy Andy Pettitte from the left side can do. We’re all in, and he’s all in.”

Pettitte summed things up simply. “I expect to be as good as I was,” he said, adding he expected to arrive in Tampa on Tuesday. “I don’t think I’m going to fail.”

In 2010, while grinding through groin and back injuries that sidelined him for almost two months, Pettitte produced an 11-3 record with a 3.28 earned run average and made the All-Star team. With his strained left groin muscle not fully healed, he went 1-1 with a 2.57 E.R.A. in the playoffs.

Pettitte emphasized that he did not retire before last season because he no longer thought he could perform. He said he did so because his desire to be with his family outweighed his desire to pitch. In December, though, he began entertaining thoughts of playing, especially, he said, after hearing of an interview in which Cashman indicated he would welcome him back.

However, at the time Cashman had not signed the veteran free agent Hiroki Kuroda or traded for the talented Michael Pineda. When Cashman and Pettitte talked in December about a possible return, Pettitte expressed interest but stopped short of a commitment, even though Cashman was willing to sign him to a $10 million to $12 million deal. After the Yankees acquired Kuroda and Pineda, Pettitte shut down his workouts, but unbeknownst to Cashman, only briefly.

“I knew I was serious when I kept waking up in the morning and going straight to the gym,” he said.

Photo

Andy Pettitte at Yankees spring training on Feb. 27. He signed a minor league deal with the team on Friday.Credit
Barton Silverman/The New York Times

When he arrived at the Yankees’ spring training camp as a special instructor, Pettitte received permission to pitch batting practice. When he did, he felt his desire to return solidify.

Catcher Russell Martin was one of the Yankees batters who faced Pettitte in that session. “He was hitting his spots, throwing it right where I wanted it,” Martin said. “I’m not sure if he’ll want to put it there for hitters when the games start. But the point is, his command was good.”

The Yankees also secretly worked Pettitte in a bullpen session at 7:30 a.m. last Tuesday.

But with their available roster money depleted, Pettitte was offered $2.5 million — if he makes the major league team. He took it.

The deal creates a quandary — one that the Yankees are happy to have. C. C. Sabathia and Kuroda are fixed at the top of the rotation. The other three slots were to go to whoever emerges from Pineda, Ivan Nova, Phil Hughes and Freddy Garcia. But now, instead of one odd man out, there will probably be two.

“I worry about things I can control,” Hughes said. “What’s going to happen is going to happen. You could tell when he was here that he wanted to come back. It is what it is.”

Other teammates expressed more enthusiasm, with Pettitte saying outfielder Nick Swisher called “screaming” to him on the phone.

Pettitte also said that when he was in camp, reliever Mariano Rivera, who is part of the Core Four that includes Derek Jeter and the recently retired Jorge Posada, pressured him twice to return.

Even if Pettitte gets himself ready to pitch in the majors, it is doubtful he will do so in time for opening day.

“Every pitcher gets about six and a half weeks of spring training,” Manager Joe Girardi said. “But he has been throwing some bullpens.”

INSIDE PITCH

The Yankees are shutting down shortstop Derek Jeter until next Tuesday, a precautionary measure for tenderness in his left calf. Jeter missed almost a month last season with a right calf injury. ... Alex Rodriguez hit his second homer of the spring, helping the Yankees to a 4-3 victory over the Washington Nationals in 10 innings. Rodriguez’s homer came in the fifth inning.

A version of this article appears in print on March 17, 2012, on page D7 of the New York edition with the headline: Yanks’ Pettitte, 39, Signs On for Comeback. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe